Driving from Cortona to Bayeux
 

Yes, it's a 15 hour trip, but we are going to drive it anyway and we already have a car rental quote. What's the best spot for one overnight on the quickest route? Also what if you do 2 overnights?

Thanks very much!

Define "best".

We want to make the first day of driving the longest one, because we will be fresh from relaxing in Tuscany. We were thinking about Beaune, France. Would this be convenient from the motorway, relatively easy to navigate as far as finding a hotel and offer good restaurants and attractive surroundings for a nice meal? So best includes convenient, desirable setting, easy to navigate. Thanks!

Sure, if you make it to Beaune, but if the Mont Blanc climb and the tunnel congestion are killing you and putting you behind schedule, there are lots of places you can try as soon as you come down into "civilization" near Geneva, just get off the expressway and into smaller towns.

Cool places would be Bourg-en-Bresse, or Mâcon (where they know as much about good wine as in Beaune!) - anywhere around there will do. And if it's just to go crash out, you'll see signs for the "formule" chain motels along the way - any port in a storm...

Safe trails!

Thanks for your response. I wondered if the Alps portion of the trip would be more stressful than the driving across France on the second day. It seems like it probably will be. I appreciate the tips on places to stop.

Rethink your itinerary - 7-8 hrs of freeway driving on 2 consecutive days is not a way to spend a vacation. Have you done this before - in Europe (quite diffeerent than in the US, IMO) What's wrong with staying in Italy - or perhaps driving much less to the French Riveria.

Stu Dudley

I'm with Stu. Just for our interest if you must do this thing, why?

According to ViaMichelin, it will cost €273 in tolls and fuel. Add to that the rental with a heavy cross border fee and I imagine that it would be cheaper to find a Ryanair(?) flight to Beauvais and rent a car from there to go to Bayeux. I do not see the sense of driving across Europe on super highways.

Ignore the moaners.

It's a great drive, and faffing about getting to and from airports is a real pain.

But it IS actually better to make it a three dayer/two nighter. The roads from Rome to the Channel have probably had more STUFF built on them over the past 2000 years than any other stretch of road in the world and you're passing stuff it's mad to miss ever few inches. The earliest guide books to the route are from the 3rd century AD (you might even try following the 3rd century Antonine Itinerary, or the Via Francigena, as described by Sigerac in AD 990), and there are even two museums of the route on the way.

Personally, I'd detour somewhere like Lucca or Parma for lunch on Day 1, overnight in Piedmont, have a potter round the Alps on Day 2 and head for somewhere in Burgundy overnight, then detour to Limoges, Poitiers or Tours for lunch on day 3.

The motorway across the Alps (which I suspect is part of the reason you're doing this) is a great disappointment. On the Italian side, there are so many tunnels the driver sees nothing (and if he does see anything, he's driving dangerously), if you go through the Mont Blanc tunnel congestion up to it and through it is a real pain and the journey down to the French territory round Geneva is just dull. Far, far better IMHO is the motorway to Aosta, the Grand St Bernard to Montreux, then across the top of Lake Geneva to join the French A40 at Archamps. This ordinary road across the Alps isn't at all stressful (hell: I've survived it and I LOATHE mountain driving): the TIR lorries are all on the motorway and the route's remarkably well maintained.

Thank you flanneruk...we are going to extend it to two nights and 3 days and take your advice on the route. We were trying to rendez-vous with friends in Normandy but they have changed their schedule...which has freed us to take more time on the drive. My husband hates airports and the time spent in them and prefers driving...plus we have never seen the Alps, want to see Burgundy and may not have another chance. Appreciate the feedback.